Jennifer Weiner grew up in Simsbury, Connecticut. She attended Princeton University, where she studied with John McPhee, Toni Morrison and Joyce Carol Oates. She is currently a reporter/columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer and a contributing editor at Mademoiselle. Her short stories have been published in Seventeen and Redbook. Her freelance work appears in Salon.com, Time Out New York, Animal Fair, the Columbia Journalism Review and Seventeen. She lives in Philadelphia and appears regularly on Philly after Midnight, Philadelphias local late-night television show, as a commentator.